At the beginning of fall semester, I wasn't sure if I wanted to have a bike on campus. Riding a bike is something I enjoyed doing at home, but would I have the time here? The gym has bikes? That's the same right? Will it not be as fun to go on a bike ride because I don't have the WO&D trail to ride on?
I went with my gut instinct and got a bike down here. I even have bike tools to fix things if I needed to. I enjoy having a bike on campus a lot. On one of the rainy days, I decided to try biking on the bikes in the gym. It's not the same at all. It feels less free. Almost as if I'm biking for no reason or purpose. Biking in a gym feels almost like being a hamster using a hamster wheel. It's alright, but I would much prefer to roam free.
My only gripes with having a bike on campus is how the campus seems to be against bikes. There are many areas of campus that only have bike racks in inconvenient places. As well as, there are many bikes around campus that are really old, having obviously been left behind by a long ago graduated student.The bike racks in front of Muse are made so you can only fit one bike in each slot instead of being the more traditional preferred bike racks that have more room on them.
Another annoyance of mine is the lack of easy to bike on area off of campus. I love going on adventures. Last summer, I would regularly bike 10 miles each way just for fun. There aren't really any good areas around Radford to do that unless you'd like to get hit by a car or trespass on someone's grass. Another issue I have is you can't bike to Walmart easily. There is no sidewalk on that road and it's 40 MPH with no crosswalk. Some may say "Oh Walmart is so far, why would you ever want to bike there?" It's only 5 miles both ways. I've walked it before. It's a nice walk, but it'd be nicer to bike as it would take less time. Another issue, is Main St. in Radford has signs up about not biking on the sidewalk. The roads have no real space for bikers and only part of it has a bike lane.
I will keep riding my bike around campus until I graduate. I hoping when I move off campus my junior year that I can get a place close enough to bike from. I think more people should consider bikes as exercise and transportation, instead of looking down upon them for being a nuisance. Just make sure if you ride a bike to obey most traffic laws, use your hand turn signals, wear a helmet, and use a bike light if riding at night. Happy riding!
